The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-04-13
REV. DIR. .TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S sun
DAY SERMON.
Subject Of Discourse: "a Broad Cos
pei" preached at Des
Moines, Iowa.


We do not need the Bible to prove the
Deluge The geologist's hammer announces
it, Sea-shells and marine formations on the
top of some of the highest mountains of the
earth prove that at some time the waters
washed over the top of the Alps and the
Andes. In what way the catastrophe came,
We know not; whether by the stroke Of a
comet, or by flashes of lightning, changing
the air into water, or by stroke of the hand
of God, like the stroke of the ak between the
horns Of the OK, the earth staggered. 10
meet the catastrophe, God ordered a great
ship built 1t was to be without prov, for it
was to sail to no shore. 1t was to be without
helm, for no human hand should guide it. 1t
was vast structure, probably as large as two
or three Cunard steamers. 1twas the Great
Eastern of olden times.
The ship is done. The door is open. The
lizards crawl in. The cattle walk in. The
grasshoppers hop in. The birds fly in. The
Invitation goes forth to Noah: "Come thou
and all thy house into the ark" Just one hu-
man family embarked on the strange voyage,
and hear the door slam shut. A great storm
sweeps along the hills, and bends the cedars
until all the branches snap in the gale. There
is moan in the wind like unto the moan of a
diving world. The blackneSS of the heavens
is shattered by the flare of the lightnings
that look down into the waters and throw q
ghastliness on the face of the mountains How
strange it looks! How suffocating the air seems!
The blg drops Of rain plaSh upon the upturned
faces Of those who are watching the tempest.
Crash 90 the rocks in convulSion! Boom go
the bursting heavens. The inhabitants OF the
earth, instead of fleeing to housetop and
mountain-top, as men have fancied, sit down
in dumb, white horror to die. For when God
grindS mountains to pieces, and lets the ocean
slip its cable. there is no place for men to fly
to- See the ark pitch and tumble in the surf;
while from its windows the passengers look
out upon the shipwreck of q race, and the
carcaSSeS Of dead world. zoe TO the noun
tainsl Woe to the sea!
I am no alarmist. When, on the Goth of
September, after the wind has for three days
been blowing from the northeast, you prophe-
sy that the eQuinoctlal storm Is coming, you
simply state a fact not to be disputed Neither
am an alarmst when say that storm is
coming, compared with which Noah's deluge
was but an April shower; and that it is the
wisest and safest for you and for me to get
safely housed for eternity. The invitation
that went forth to Noah sounds i'll our ears:
.'Come thou and all thy house into the ark. ~
.sWell, how did Noah and his family come
into the ark! Did they climb in at the win
dow, or come down the roof! No; they went
through the door. And just so, if we get into
the ark of Gods mercy, it will be through
Christ the door. The entrance to the ark of
We know that it was from the fact that
there were monster animals in the earlier
ages; end, in order to get them into the ark
two and two, according to the Bible state
ment, the door must have been very wide and
very high. So the door into the mercy of
God is large door. We SO in, not two by
two, but by hundreds, and by thousands, and
by millions. Yea, all the nations of the earth
may 20 in, ten millions abreast
The door of tha nOcient ark NaS in thn side
So now it is through the side of Christ-the
pierced side, the wide-open side, the heart
Side-that we enter. Aha the Roman soldier,
thrusting his spear into the Saviour's side,
expected only to let the blood out, but he
opened the way to let all the world in. o,
what broad Gospel to preach! If a man is
about to give an entertainment, he issues one
or two hundred invitations, carefully put up
and directed to the particular persons whom
he wishes to entertain. But God our Father
makes banquet, and goes out to the front
door of heaven and stretches out his hands
over land and sea, and, with q voice that
penetrates the Hindoo Jingle and the Green
English factory, and American home,
cries out: Come, for all things are
now ready" 1t is wide door,
The old cross has been taken apart, and its
. Two pieces are stood up for the door posts, so
far apart that all the world can come in.
Kings scatter treasures on days Of great re-
joicing, So Christ, our King, comes and
scatters the jewels Of heaven. Rowland Hill
said that he hoped to get into heaven through
the crevices OF the door. But he was not
obliged thus to go in. After having preached
the gospel in Surrey Chapel. going up toward
heaven, the gatekeeper cried Lift up your
heads, ye everlasting gates, and let this man
come in" The dying thief went in. Richard
Baxter and Robert Newtown went in Europe,
-.
yet go through this wide door. without crowd
ing He, every one!-all conditions, all ranks, all
people Luther said that this truth was
worth carrying on ones knees from Rome to
Jerusalem but think it worth carrying all
around the globe, and all around the heavens,
that God so loved the world that He gave
His only-begotten Son, that whoSoever be-
ieyeth in Him should not perish, but have
everlasting life" Whosoever will, let him
come through the large door. Archimedes
wanted fulcrum on which to place his lever,
and then he said that he could move the
world. Calvary IS the fulcrum, and the cross
of Christ is the lever. and by that power all
nations shall yet lifted.
Further: 1t is door that swings both ways.
do not know whether the door of the ancient
ark was lifted, or rolled on hinges; but this
door Of Christ opens both ways. 1t swings
out toward all our woes; it swings in to-
VolO LILO ldpOUl @ VI IL LII w
let US in; it swings out to let our ministering
ones come out. All are one in Christ-Chris-
tlans on earth and saints in heaven.
zone army OF the living God,
At His command we bow;
Part Of the host have crossed the flood.
And part crossing now"
Swing in, Oh blessed door! until all the
earth shall 60 in and live Swing out until
all the heavens come forth to celebrate the
victory.
But, further, it is door with fastenings
him in" A vessel without bulwarks OF doors
would not be a safe vessel to go in. When
Noah and his family heard the fastening Of
the door of the ark, they were very glad.
Unless those doors were fastened, the first
heavy surge of the sea would have whelmed
them; and they might as well have perished
outside the ark as inside the ark. "The Lord
shut him in" Oh, the perfect safety of the
ark! The surf of the sea and the ightnings
of the sky may be twisted into garland of
snow and fire-deep to deep, storm to storm,
darkness to darkness; but once in the ark, all
is well. "God shut him in"
There comes upon the good man deluge OF
financial trouble. He had his thousands to
lend; now he cannot borrow dollar. He
once owned a store in New York, and had
branch houses in Boston, Philadelphia and
New Orleans He owned four horses. and
employed man to keep the dust off his coach
phaeton, carriage and curricle; now he ha'
hard work to get Shoes in which to walk. The
great deep of commercial disaster was broken
up and fore, and aft, and across the hurrl
cane deck, the waves struck him. But he wa:
safely sheltered from the storm. "The Loru
shut him in. "A flood OF domestic trouble fell or
him. Sickness and bereavement came. The
rain pelted The winds blew. The heavens
are ahame. All the gardens of earthly de
light are washed away. The fountains of Joy
are buried fifteen cubits deep. But, standing